When and how much to prune, how long between toppings

High homies,
I am a closet grower with six plants this is my second grow. Because of the info I got from this sight and yall my first time was a blast with big pay off... I want more.

I am trying to make the most of my space because I had a problem with mildew and lots of smaller branches creating small buds that took a long time to trim. This time I have topped the plants one time with a combination of FIM and TOPPING to see which is better for me. I want to experiment on two of them and topp again but I dont know how much time the plant should be given to heel between topping and if only vegging for one month is enough time to give the plant to heal with two toppings?

However my main question was about the pruning I intend to do and the time at which to do it. I was thinking about taking off the bottom branches up to like the top ten major branches that will produce the big buds and will make air passage easier and not make me trim so many .1g nugs. So what time is the best time to do this a week before flowering, a few days, the day before? Should I leave more or less than ten main branches? Can I do anything to stress the plant less(water the day of, do it in the early/late part of the light cycle? Should I trim below or above the nodes? I wasnt going to do any pruning other than taking off the bottom several branches is this a good idea?

Some of my specifics are:
1000W HPS, closet grow about 3'ft x 9'ft
six plants all different strains
currently 2weeks 3 days, topped/FIMMED at 13days
Plan to veg for 30days maybe a couple more
Floranova series fert

Thanks and for all

Heres what I do

Topem just after the clone roots then let veg till they hit 18 inches from the pot.Then low stress train them(rope'in).

I take the very top of the branch and tie some gardening twine just below the first leaf and snug it down.Not to tight mind you just enough so it done slide off the branch.Now bend the branch down untill it almost hits the pot.I go across the pot and back in forth untill all the tall branchs are tied down.Looks like its almost in a ball when done.Now let veg 1 more week and remove any lower leafs and smaller branchs and slam them to bloom.I add tomatoes cages at this time to hold up the fatass buds that will be comeing but ya could just stake them too.Anyways.this will make them shoot a bunch of top colas out and straight up at the light.Your popcorn buds will now be big ass colas as long as ya keep the light close to the top of the plants.This is called lst'ing and will increase your yield by atleast a couple zips.
Dont worry cuz it will not hurt the plant nor stress it.In a couple hrs it will be shooting back at the light but will now be in a race for top dog cola so just sit back and enjoy the race.

hope this helps

So I am dealing with a space issue, do you tie each individual branch down to its own pot? what about the main to shoots. I am definately intersested and am going o do some more research about it thanks
You are the only one that posted with any advice after four posting...
ANY PICS?